The Really Useless Thread

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Hopes for This Thread
Just a place to share a little about our methods and discuss what is and isn’t working…your strengths and weaknesses, etc. Hopefully a few seasoned people join in, and through “the beg, borrow or steal” method…er, collaboration…we can all pick up a few gems from one another to improve our own methods. No need to give away the whole farm…your edge, so to speak…though. Share as much, or as little as you like. Contribute what you can…take away what you like.

I also find I get asked the same questions quite often. I often find it a pain to re-type a response…or to dig back through my posts to find a link to post for someone. I’m just going to use this thread…and particular posts which I will update over time, as the link I provide in such cases. If you find that happens to yourself often, too…and you don’t have a thread of your own for people to reference…bang out a post with some of your method. Keep it updated…and use that link as your answer to people on the often asked questions.

Rules of the Thread
Not a lot, really. I have set the vouch level required to post at the maximum, just to reduce some of the noise. If there was an option to make a “private” thread, I probably would have done that, but there is not. Vouch limit and my “ignore list” appear to be the only method to control posting rights. My “Iggy” list is empty…so that is not much use. 10+v and anybody on my “buddy list” can post. I have never really used my buddy list before, but I will update it over the next little while with this thread in mind.

If you don’t have enough vouches and really want to post something you think is valuable, you’ll probably find me in the EU thread. I roam these halls in Invisible mode, so I’m not sure if my PM feature appears active? I have it setup to be, but am unsure what Invisibility does to its status. If it is active…anybody is welcome to PM me at anytime. If it becomes problematic, I’ll step out of the shadows and become visible again. Also…If anyone has some obvious choices for me to include on my buddy list…let it rip.

We don’t have to post live calls or anything like that here…but feel free to if you want. I picture more of a reference type thread…an ever-expanding textbook, kind of thing. Post some charts and explain a bit about your method. Try to ask and answer a few questions…if they’re good. And of course…no amount of humor is too much! Bastards…”that’s what she said’s”…all welcome!

And now…a few words from Magix, that I have reprinted “without” his permission, because he has gone out drinking Guinness and eating curry for the night! If he wants me to pull them, I will…but I would just be rephrasing what he has already eloquently stated. I also need to thank Magix for helping me get this intro…and general direction of the thread together through his own experience starting threads. And last but not least…for the title of the thread! I was going to go with “The Really Useless Thread,” but Magix felt it might have the opposite effect to what I was hoping for.

Edit: There is already a thread titled “The Boardroom,” Mag. Had to go back to my original Useless name.

Alright…take it away, mate…

------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ ---------------------------------NEW TRADERS
You wanna sit and hang, perhaps learn a little something from the seasoned vets, all are welcome, BUT:

1. The market has already publicly traded since the birth of the internet, so
- Your question has already been answered. (google it or use the FF search engine)
- Your view is already shared. Again, (google it or use the FF search engine)
- You look like a fool with your tinfoil hat, and these perspectives simply are not welcome.

2. Though we all hope to gain by a collaboration of experience, we already appreciate that we are a slave to our own market experience and though hope to improve, are not looking to START our careers as traders.

3. This is not your guide to getting rich quick. If you have taken entry as posted here, use your best judgment to take profit or cut losses. Those that participate do so of their own free will, not because "You" cannot pay your rent.

4. The use of the words "Fuck", "Feck", "Fak", are not reasons to report a member to admin, they are not a lack of respect nor professionalism; they ARE words that will get used.

5. The Senior members that post here may or may not have their PM's on to answer questions for you, do not abuse that privilege. If they do not have their PM active, they may have no intention answering your question nor wanting to, leave it at that.

6. Have fun and MAKE MONEY.
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Thanks brother, Mag!

Well…that’s about it, folks. We’ll see where it goes. Thanks in advance to all that contribute…and to those that I have already learned a lot from. There are some good heads here, and I consider it a privilege to be in contact with many of you when time permits.

I started and ran a particular business for almost exactly 10 years to the day. What that business was, or did, is unimportant…I sold it in 2008. Clients were large multi-nationals…think Oracle, HP, Google, Vodafone etc. etc. I was paid initially in Irish Punts…and eventually in Euros. My suppliers were mostly US based. Through one of two situations, I was often paid long in advance for goods before they were required on-site.

1- The facility wasn’t complete yet.
2- They wanted to pay out of the current fiscal year’s budget, but weren’t ready to roll out for months…sometimes over 12 months.

Figures involved were often xxx,xxx in size…and occasionally x,xxx,xxx. The first time this happened, I got lucky; by the time I ordered from my suppliers, USD was cheaper to buy than when I initially quoted and received funds. Great! I made a couple extra percent, but didn’t give it much thought. A little over a year later, the same sort of situation arose, except with funds from three new clients. This time…not so fortunate! I got my ass kicked…dollars were a lot more expensive to buy than when I quoted! I had to do some research and find ways to prevent that from happening again.

First thing I did was cut my bank out of the equation. One familiar word…bastards! I started using XE to handle all of my transactions…the savings were quite significant; 1% or so…but it added up quickly on the amount of funds being transferred. Then in trying to find ways to basically “hedge” my funds…the world of “leveraged” forex appeared before my eyes! I started lurking around here in late 2005, I believe. Joined in 2008, but was crazy busy selling a business, a house…and moving another business, a dog…and myself across the world. Have only fairly recently kind of “settled down” a little bit…hence, my blossoming post count!

Quick story. I started trading without even knowing that's what I was doing. I flipped a property and I had some money sitting in the bank. They were in euro, and I didn't need them right away. I knew euro floats against the dollar, or the other way around if you will. So I opened another account, USD this time and I started moving the entire amount from one account to the other every 6-7 months. Talk about trading the monthly chart with a 1:1 leverage.... Somehow after a round trip or two, I ended up with about $15K more. Hmm.... I started to dig into it and here I am. As a matter of fact that $15K was the bulk of my first day trading account...

My story....Im an Architect...after 2008 70% of my profession got decimated....its has only gotten worse......I day traded here and there for a few years and found pretty good success.....Online buddy introduced me to forex and I was hooked in a couple a days....

I had stupid success right off the bat....dumb luck...60K in 3 months.....then I lost 98% of it .... traded most back then lost 98% again.....finally, I decided to trade like I did when I was at 2% all the time.....better MM now, but entries were killing me. FF EU board has been a god send...I never knew anything about S/D.....and "looking left" until the top traders on FF opened my eyes. All I can say is it was the missing link for my style....Ive gone from 50-60% accuracy to 90+%.....Also, I studied Elliott Wave Theory heavily over the past year...(really helps connect the dots with S/D)

My plan is 1% a day for 90 days...Im 30% in and cant wait to claim success

Quick story. I started trading without even knowing that's what I was doing. I flipped a property and I had some money sitting in the bank. They were in euro, and I didn't need them right away. I knew euro floats against the dollar, or the other way around if you will. So I opened another account, USD this time and I started moving the entire amount from one account to the other every 6-7 months. Talk about trading the monthly chart with a 1:1 leverage.... Somehow after a round trip or two, I ended up with about $15K more. Hmm.... I started to dig...

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Fakkin A, attila! Nice to hear a little background.

Interesting how different people find this game. Mine and yours both seemed to happen...just through "life" itself. Others are here because it was their livelihood in previous years...PTL...OldQuant...the g-man. Will be interesting to hear how some other people wound up here, too. Although nobody should feel obliged to give that info.

Congratulations Ken ! I hope this thread will be flourishing) I can not wait to read more ) And I will tell my story latter ( how it 's all begin for me ) LOL Again good luck with your thread

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Oh...there goes my smile again...ear to ear grin...every time you walk into the room!

Thanks for the congrats, sofia...and I can't wait to hear more about how you got here! I do want to stress one thing, though...

I'm not remotely interested in this thread being about me...in any way, shape or form. I sent Magix my "intro" post earlier and told him I was thinking of going with "The Really Useless Thread" for a title. He gave me a solid reason why I should re-think that...and suggested "KenFen's Den." Not bad at all...but not what I'm looking for out of this. I sent him an amended paragraph that I hoped was making that point.

He saw the point, and suggested "The Boardroom." I thought it was great...right on cue! Right when I was about to press "Create Thread"...I thought...I better do a search for "Boardroom." Sure enough...there is already a Boardroom here...FF has it all!

I went with the original title...rightly or wrongly; I just wanted to pull the trigger...so here we are. My point is...I hope the "congratulations" go to all of us that contribute to something that could become a really valuable resource!

Not sure if this is boring or whatever, but I guess good as place as any to put my hopefully not too skiddish ADDEnhanced story of how I came into the forex market.

I was initially led onto trading by a co-worker at my previous employer (2007-2008'ish). This lady was about 10 years or so from retirement... and was very in-tune with the world events and what not going on... and had a feel about the impending crash about to happen. She had cleared out all of her investment accounts, 401k's and the like and was using her cash to play this little thing called the foreign exchange market.

I didn't really know or understand anything about it... just that during her lunch break, she would pull up all these colorful charts to check on a few orders... and I found it rather intriguing.

After chatting with her for a little bit, and not really comprehending a single thing she was relaying to me (your buying and selling what at the same time? Doesn't that break even?!? I don't get it...hehe) I decided to pop open a demo account at home with forex.com and see what it's all about.

I took a look at the terminal, had my demo account filled with 50k, and immediately realized that my comprehension of this at best was pretty charts and a lot of numbers changing really really fast. Bought and sold a few currencies over the course of a few seconds... and just left it at 'meh'.

Around 2009 I had just moved to my new job at OSU and realized that I still had one of the currency trading books my ex-coworker let me borrow "Adventures of a currency trader". On one really slow weekend, decided to pull it open and read it.. gave it a go... and while it wasn't meant for systems or how to trade, it gave the insight of one man who went from forex being a get rich quick scheme, to him 'solving the markets' with a purchased ea, to being flat broke... and then once coming to the realization with some help from some trading managers/floors came to be the trader he is today. Good stuff...

Anyways, to get back on track here... I had completely forgotten about forex but my sights were set the commodities market. I had flipped some stocks, made some money here, made some money there, lost even more money elsewhere... My main home was afdvn (ihub stock boards) where I got mixed up in what presumably could have been one of the top scams in history on the penny market.

Via one "Monks Den" a large following of people (cult personality) were trying to in effect, cause a short squeeze on the market makers themselves, on which they had presumably targeted low float penny stocks and naked short sold them into the ground. The idea was to always buy buy buy, never sell, and eventually those 'evil naked short sellers' would be forced to buy the stock back at a price we determined. There were 4 total stocks.

Easy money, right?!? All we had to do was work together and eventually these stocks which we had been loading at pennies on the dollar, would blossom into 20.00$+ stocks. And the funny part was, there was a point in time where all of us were up 500%-1000% depending on when we jumped in... it didn't matter though... greed was heavy at work.

Needless to say, while a lot of us had faith and our emotions fully vested in this... it wasn't trading and was a fools bargain at best. Ah, so naive we were though... of course the 'leaders' had been selling behind our back all the while blaming it on the evil market makers... The result now being that two of the stocks are on the Grey sheets, trading around .0001 and .001 cents. Some peoples life savings were completely wiped out... and to this day people are still on the board hoping that what we had once believed in, will blossom to be true. Some just do not know how to let go... and I can fully understand why... 50k, 100k gone just like that from something once held to be a firm belief. Luckily I didn't have the equity to completely tank myself in this... otherwise I may have been living in a mental hospital now.

I, on the other hand grew wise to the kool-aide and set out to do things right and proper.

Since a good chunk of my equity had been eaten up in this scam... I needed something with a bit more leverage available, that did not have the pattern day trading requirements set on it... and voila, forex!

What a trip it has been... I'm sure the path I took is something very similar to what many of us have gone through; although much wiser to the 'get-rich-quick' stuff... I just wanted to learn charts, and become good at trading charts. This was the goal I set out to achieve. Cooking several accounts along the way...

And some words on this site from now friends that kept me from giving up... taking their time to help someone whom they had never spoken to before and had never even seen a post from before... It's why I like to pay it forward when I can (yes, a lot of nonsense does come out of my... erhm, keyboard as it were... but a few gems once in a while too).

Well, don't think it really matters anymore... I am giving up at this market... their is no rhyme or reason to the direction it takes... it reminds me very much of the OTC market in the equities market...

I'm done giving money away here.... good luck to all. I'm going to go stick with what I know...

I have been where you are so I think I can help.
I assume you have read everywhere on articles other "traders" technical analysis. etc.
Anyways, take a break... Play some poker, this helped me alot... just the free rolls... You will be amazed how similar it is, you get punished for not beeing patient, you get rewarded for playng good... But only in the looooooong run... This also helps you to take away the gambling need in the market... If you earn 2xBigBlinds pr 100 hands you are doing really really good... That's not alot now is it?...

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I know a lot of people love to spout of a lot of bull about their account status and what not... and I can be perfectly honest here... This is my first year in which I am not only on par to close positive... but doing so in such a manner that I have already made all of my losses back from the last 4'ish years (forex + commodies) along with plenty left over. I feel like such a goofball. It's such a *duh* moment... The charts, the money management, all of it. But you have to have the realization happen. Once it happens, the doors fully open and it's on... I have many people to thank on these forums for that, and will continue to do so as I grow and evolve in my trading. I hope that I can also help others in their journey. My help, just as anyone else would have this same view, will not be giving away the *duh* moment... because even if it is spoken or told.... it probably will not sink in.

Screen time is what gets your just deserts in for these markets. It can't be bought, scammed, read, heard or any other communicative method (telepathy?!? hehe). Good luck all... wish you the best and above all.... GOOD FAWKING TRADES!!

So how do YOU see the market? It would be nice to get it going. I would do it first but I'm telling you, my charts are the ugliest thing you've ever seen. I would like to first get a sense of where this thread will settle.

OK, so here's part of it. Maybe about 40% of my system. It's the beautiful side of it all. Like I said, I'll keep the ugly sister in the hiding for a little while more.

What you see are important s/r points. So here's what I did. I built a god damn data warehouse. It holds all the e/u data W,D,H4,H1,... 10sec, Tick. Then I took the last 1000 pips range divided it into 20 pips bins, counted the ticks and only take into account the first half of all the bins (sorted descending). Not sure if it makes sense. Now some bins are adjacent. When that was the case I merged them. The dotted white lines are the middle of the (mostly merged) bins. The blue lines are the middle distance between the dotted ones. I might have lost you, ask away...

Anyway, the price tends to want to touch these dotted white lines and it does everything it can to accomplish that. Think about it, they are actually middles of clusters of ticks (or 10seconds OHLC in this case).

My story....Im an Architect...after 2008 70% of my profession got decimated....its has only gotten worse......I day traded here and there for a few years and found pretty good success.....Online buddy introduced me to forex and I was hooked in a couple a days....

I had stupid success right off the bat....dumb luck...60K in 3 months.....then I lost 98% of it .... traded most back then lost 98% again.....finally, I decided to trade like I did when I was at 2% all the time.....better MM now, but entries were killing me. FF EU board has been a god...

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Great stuff, mate (glad the "buddy" list is working, too!)!

EWT is something I'm really looking forward to getting into...just can't learn it all in one go. I've recently been exploring Gartley's, and Volume...yeah, yeah...say what yo like! They both have earned "doesn't hurt to observed" status in my arsenal. EWT...I keep an eye on Markus the Infinitus for now. Its probably next on my list to study, but until I tackle the guts...his filter seems highly efficient!

Good to know you're another source to watch on that. Great intro, mate!

Oh...there goes my smile again...ear to ear grin...every time you walk into the room!

Thanks for the congrats, sofia...and I can't wait to hear more about how you got here! I do want to stress one thing, though...

I'm not remotely interested in this thread being about me...in any way, shape or form. I sent Magix my "intro" post earlier and told him I was thinking of going with "The Really Useless Thread" for a title. He gave me a solid reason why I should re-think that...and suggested "KenFen's Den." Not bad at all...but not what...

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No dancing it's raining hard tonight ) so I guess I have time to tell my story) I don't even know where to begin ... Ok I was in my own business(3 years after coming from Russia with 8 dollars to my name) ,and friend of mine told me to buy XXX stock ,I had the money ,did not know anything about stock market ,just recently emigrated from Russia ,to make long story short ,my investment went to 0 ,witch made me really mad .I started reading everything I could about the market and 2 years latter got my series 7 license . I did not wanted to work for any brokerage,because of my free spirit ,LOL I was trading stocks and commodity options ,and then life kind of took over ,and I did not had time ...for any trading .About 7 years ago I found FX and it looked very interesting ,so I started trading and loosing money ,LOL for about 1 year ) witch now I consider a price for education ) After that I found group of Russian traders and start learning from each of them what I liked ) It helped that my degree was in engineering,so I learn structure fast and like to play chess it help too ,so thats the story and I am sticking to it

I know a lot of people love to spout of a lot of bull about their account status and what not... and I can be perfectly honest here... This is my first year in which I am not only on par to close positive... but doing so in such a manner that I have already made all of my losses back from the last 4'ish years (forex + commodies) along with plenty left over. I feel like such a goofball. It's such a *duh* moment... The charts, the money management, all of it. But you have to have the realization happen. Once it happens, the doors fully open and it's...

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Wow V-man...what a tale! REALLY, REALLY good stuff there!

I remember that *duh* moment, too. It probably took about three years...a little more. Thankfully nothing too serious had been wiped out...a few accounts...yes...but small in size. I knew enough going in, to know that what I knew...read: SHIT...was not going to be enough to outsmart the forces at work in this game.

When the lights went on...I still carried on small for another year or so, but then I started having brokerr issues, too. Usual bad fills and shite that anybody will experience, but also lost some moolah outright with JadeFX's demise. Unending learning curve in this game. Common fakking sense MUST be something that is listed in your top 10 traits...if not...top five!

Cheers brother...what an opener!

ps- your WPM is absolutely STAGGERING...and if I said I was anything but envious...I would be lying!
pps- The torment I would run on these boards if I had your WPM? Its better in your hands!

I'm the same...dancing is more "memorable" these days...not like when I was younger and just flailing my arms in the air to any shitty tune, on any given night of the week! Guess I'm getting older...not OLD...just...older...and more selective.

so I guess I have time to tell my story) I don't even know where to begin ... Ok I was in my own business(3 years after coming from Russia with 8 dollars to my name) ,and friend of mine told me to buy XXX stock ,I had the money ,did not know anything about stock market ,just recently emigrated from Russia ,to make long story short ,my investment went to 0 ,witch made me really mad .I started reading everything I could about the market and 2 years latter got my series 7 license . I did not wanted to work for any brokerage,because of my free spirit...

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You stick exactly to that, my friend...what a way to get rolling! Hard lessons are good lessons! I remember saying to my Dad one time in my early 20's: I don't mind falling on my face and having to get back up again. He was "stupefied!" He thought I was being my "typical smart-arsed" self. I gave him two examples of how I had done just that, in my early "professional" career, and how I wouldn't have benefited from them unless I fell completely flat on my face...read: FAIL! Get up...dust myself off...remember the feeling...and make sure it didn't happen again. He was then "gob-smacked!"

We had our own learning-curves. No two people travel the same paths...even if you're "blood"!

BTW...we don't really get along that well. Mammy is where my soul came from. Papa...where I don't want it to wind up! Life is too short.

So how do YOU see the market? It would be nice to get it going. I would do it first but I'm telling you, my charts are the ugliest thing you've ever seen. I would like to first get a sense of where this thread will settle.

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My brother...I probably jumped the gun a little bit by not having my meat and potatoes ready to roll at the same time of thread creation. Had to put a little more thought into a couple of things than I had originally thought about. Just wanted to press "go" on the weekend, though.

This thread will settle exactly where we want it to. I predict a soft landing...and water for everyone!

I tried to get the timeframe and scale similar to yours. Those lines are drawn from an indicator that I've been tweaking. I'll post it in meat, or potatoes when they are rolling.

I "borrowed" it from somebody else (some MT4 coding legend) and have been tweaking it to my fancy for a while. One of the reasons I love it is that it draws itself on my charts at the first tick after 5pm NYC close. I don't have to think...it just does. The attached image doesn't tell the whole story, because its waiting for the next available tick...5pm EST Sunday...on the brokerr its floating on.

What is scary about it...is how accurate its levels play out over and over, historically. So...if history gets respect...does the future get some, too? Well it does from me...until proven silly. I'll explain more soon.

Great charts, my friend...dying for elaboration...and collaboration!

PS-I hope ANYBODY can download any attached files here....regardless of vouch count. If you can't...say the word somewhere.pps- None have really been posted yet...give it a little while.